The Three Paths and Their Classical Exemplars

The Bhagavad Gita describes three paths ("yogas") to divinity: the path of action, the path of knowledge, and the path of devotion. These three paths don't seem to be described in classical sources, but it seems to me that the myth of Discordia and Her golden apple does an adequate job of mythologizing it: Discordia throws the apple between the three goddesses (symbolizing the split nature of our appetition, here in the sensible world) and Jove (symbol of divine law) delegates adjudication to Paris (who represents the human soul). Which goddess does he give the apple to?

Juno, here, represents power and action, and Her path to divinity is to live one's entire life as a form of prayer or offering. I think this is visible in her mythic champion Hercules and the path is classically exemplified by Diogenes.

Minerva, here, represents reason and knowledge, and Her path to divinity is the training of the mind to go beyond material concerns. Given that Athens was especially dedicated to Her, this is the path most heavily emphasized in classical times, and we have our pick of exemplars, from Pythagoras to Plato to Proclus.

Venus, here, represents love and beauty, and Her path to divinity is explicit devotion or love to some divinity. The Greeks generally and the philosophers specifically were pretty negative on Venus—as seen in the myth, no good comes of Paris giving the apple to Her—and yet I still think we see this path exemplified by Plotinus and Porphyry (though perhaps it's fairer to say of those two that they divided the apple between Venus and Minerva).

Socrates makes an interesting case study, here as elsewhere, as it seems to me that he balanced all three paths in roughly equal measure.

I've noted before how these three relate to Plato's faculties of the soul. While I think that model has its issues, it's certainly natural to assume that souls tend towards the path that plays to its specific strengths.

Treason and Robots

I started studying William Linney's Getting Started With Ancient Greek the other day. There's a famous Italian adage, "traduttore, traditore"—in English, we might say "translation is treason"—and the biggest hurdle I've had in studying the classics is that I've had to contend with the biases of translators. Most of them clearly don't understand the material, but even Thomas Taylor—bless him—is so obsessed with Proclus that he reads Proclus, and writes Proclus, into everyone. So being able to bypass such gatekeeping is valuable. But to be honest, I'd content myself with translation if there were translations of everything I wanted to read—but I really want to read Stobæus, and nobody's translated him!

But that's not what this post is about: this post is about blind faith. I was mentioning the above to a friend, who asked, in all seriousness, "Why not just ask ChatGPT to translate him for you?"

I stared, incredulously, for a moment, and answered, "How would I know if it was right?"

He was quite surprised by this and conceded the point.

Now, this seems a very obvious thing to me—the whole point was that I can't trust a translator of any kind, human or robot—but it's not as if my friend is a dummy! Rather, it seems there's something of an insidious meme of the infallibility or inevitability of machine learning which is polluting people's abilities to think clearly about it. I think it's worth bearing in mind that a meme is all it is, and this meme is pushed by people who are neither honest nor have your best interests at heart.

Remember that your highest self is essentially independent. To be your best, think for yourself!

Quotable Diogenes

"Isn't it strange that so many destroy their bodies when alive, but preserve their bodies when dead?"

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"As an overfull house attracts mice, so an overfull body attracts disease."

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"What philosophy teaches by reason, poverty teaches by necessity."

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When begging, Diogenes once received a fresh loaf of bread. He dumped the wheat kernels he had previously received out of his begging bowl, saying to them, "Stranger, make way for the king!"

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Diogenes made a point of living with as little as possible, and had, after much experimentation, finally whittled his possessions down to a cloak, a staff, and a bowl. One day as he was going to a fountain to get some water, he saw a boy drinking from it with his hands. Diogenes lamented, "All this effort, to be beaten by a child!" and smashed the bowl.